Director Roger Nygard traveled the world asking theologians, scientists, skeptics, and everyday people 85 tough questions to try to understand The Nature of Existence! Now that he’s asked the experts, it’s YOUR TURN! To offer your own insights on today’s question, “Can religion and science coexist?”, Leave a Reply below!
Religion and science used be one and the same. Unfortunately, that is not the case now and religions are outdated and irrelevant.
Religion was created to help better understand the world around us. Now I believe that science is able to do this better for at least me. I do not think that people who believe in religion are stupid or misguided, they simply like the answers that religion gives them. Regardless who is right we will all find out one day. Everything that is alive ultimately dies that is one basic rule of nature.
They already do! Take the pompous ego out. Observe things as they are. One would see reality is being one.
As a man of science who is also religious I know that they absolutely coexist. There are eternal truths that exist. I think that anyone who agrees with science or religion can agree with that. I have not found one scientific fact that refutes anything that I have learned through my faith. In fact, many of the leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints are scientists.
We believe in not only current scriptures, but in continuing revelation from God. I believe that God’s understanding is more complete than our own. As I have studied physics, chemistry, geology, psychology, and ultimately what I do now, medicine I have seen the teachings of God match perfectly with what science now understands.
Science is our attempt to find the answers to the world (and universe) around us. Our understanding of science has changed and continues to change. Some things that science taught as fact have been proven wrong, but our understanding has grown. I have yet to see anything that God has taught proven wrong. There have been misguided individuals who have perpetuated false ideas in the name of religion, but those ideas are not taught by God.
Many things that science is just beginning to understand have been understood for centuries by those who follow God’s teachings. If we truly understand science and religion (and not just what others tell us about them) we can see how perfectly they mesh. I certainly don’t know or understand everything now, but I hope that someday (after I have finished my mortal life) I will.
They already do, though not forever. Religion is just ridiculous theatrics next to science, that saps the authority it needs to survive.
As Mahesh says, they sorta do already. They have been coexisting since before there were scientists in the Vatican examining Galileo’s theories. Unfortunately there were some politicians deciding what should actually be taught and published. Anyway, yes. And they could coexist better than they do today.
Religion needs to back off on truth claims, like whether or not there was a worldwide flood. We also need to back off on the idea that Galileo put forward centuries ago that nature is some sort of book that we merely need to figure out how to read, then we will know everything. It seemed like we might be able to do that, then we found out the universe is 14 billion years old, light travels too slow so we can’t see the whole universe and particles can exist in two places at once.
Even if we could know everything, it wouldn’t help us decide if we should drink Diet Coke or if we are or are not our brother’s keeper.
Religion in what, science is how and history is when.
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yes religion and science CAN coexist. Just like athiests and christians can also.
No, they can’t.
Science provides the answers for what was religion.
Por lo demás, cientificos religiosos existen porque, nadie nace siendo científico, en cambio, todos al nacer somos (sin que nos pregunten, incluso antes de tener opinión) enseñados en una religión.
Yo naci siendo católico (sin saber), y quizás lo más dificil de empezar “a hacer” ciencias, es dejar de creer en tanta estupidez sobrenatural llamada religión.
Por eso el mundo funciona en las leyes de la naturaleza, no hay tal cosa llamada “sobrenaturaleza”, y esa, es la conclución de la ciencia.
Después de todo, nunca la respuesta a un estudio científica ha sido “Dios”.
No, can not coexist.
Religious scientists exist because no one is born a scientist, however, at birth we are all (without being asked, even before having an opinion) taught in a religion.
I was born a Catholic (not knowing), and perhaps most difficult to start “doing” science, is to stop believing in the supernatural such stupidity called religion.
That is why the world works in the laws of nature, there is no such thing as “supernatural”, and that is The conclusion of science.
After all, never the answer to a scientific study has been “God.”
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They certainly can coexist. If anything, science backs up the idea that things are far to perfect to be nothing more than coincidence. Religion and science both offer answers, physical and metaphysical, that, when paired, allow for a greater understanding of how everything really is.
Coexist: (from Reference Answers)
To exist together, at the same time, or in the same place.
To live in peace with another or others despite differences.
IF… the religion is based on Love, and a religious person were actually able to LIVE their religion then yes, they could coexist with anyone.
IF… the scientist is tollerant, humble, and wise, ….. understanding that their scientific, logic based understanding is limited to what THEY can currently observe, and also recognize the limitations of the subjective mind… then yes, they could coexist with views that currently appear to conflict with their own mind’s observations.
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A good religion accepts that God works in VERY mysterious ways, ways that the finite mind can NOT currently comprehend.
A good scientist knows that paradigm shifts do take place from time to time and they are willing to shift with them. *(something dogmatic belief systems find difficult to do, be they labeled reigion OR science). They understand that LOGIC is simply a ‘system of reasoning’ and does not confuse their logic based understanding with Truth, since new information may well enter into their awareness at any time and totally change their perspective.
However… BOTH the religious finite mind AND the scientific finite mind will be humbled beyond comprehension when Truth Absolute is revealed to them… from Within. Whatever the finite mind THINKS this world is, THINKS God is… is in for a most amazing surprise. ~ Peace ~
Obvious answer is that they ARE coexisting.
Yes it can and is becoming moreso with quantum physics. But the world has a vast number of different types of people and some will never accept either science or religion unless it becomes their reality.
Unhappy for the huge survey, but I’m real lovable the new Zune, and comedian this, as comfortably as the fantabulous reviews some separate bonk written, present forbear you decide if it’s the ethical quality for you.
God is Absolute
Science is Induced
By God’s side,,there is this absoluteness.What we have here is induced reality.
Can different sects in the same religion coexist? Can different schools of thought in the same scientific faculty coexist? No. We see an ashtonishing amount of discripencies, questionable moral standards and serious contradictions in religious scriptures. This year’s Nobel winning scientific discovery overturns by someone else’s brilliant research next year. There are too many unsolved issues around us. And it wil be the same. Although science and religion can’t make it out, it seems we can, on the ground of what we already know for sure so far–love and mutual respect–our humanity.
Religion has been asking this question, not science. Religion can coexist fully with science only when it begins to respect our accumulated knowledge.
Well, if they can’t, somebody had better tell the both of them straightaway because they seem to be coexisting already. Interestingly, it doesn’t appear to matter to the one what the other “reveals” anyway.
That’s the flippant answer. The more reflective answer is, there will likely be no problem in coexisting so long as compassion comes first in their various dealings with one another.
It depends on how you interpret the question. They definitely can, they do now, even in the mind of a single individual. Now the question “can they coexist in their purest form” is a bit trickier to answer. I still think yes, but they will probably always get in each other’s way.
Yes, in the same way that marriage and infidelity can co-exist.
They need to be compartmentalized in one’s mind, because one relies on reason and evidence while the other does not.
They do in the sense that there are scientists who happen to adhere to a particular religious creed. I don’t see how they can be reconciled though, and the existence of the above mentioned people baffles me.
This issue is a Western phenomenon. In the Eastern cultures science and religion have a harmonius relationship.
In the West this is a very serious issue that can be resolved if both sides compromise in what I think is a very reasonable way.
First, Intellectuals should not overreach. Our body of knowledge contains facts that have been experimentally tested and also confirmed to be repeatable. Any facts that do not meet these requirements fall in the realm of conjecture. Unfortunately, many events which are obviously true do not meet these requirements, Blas Cabrera’s monopole experiment in 1982, for example. He measured a near perfect event that was never repeated.
Many of the important events in our lives are of this type. By definition, they will never meet the requirements, which means that science has its limits. Science is magnificient and completely necessary, but like the wave theory of light it doesn’t answer everything.
Intellectuals need only to be true to their own rules and the situation will improve. There is no place for dogmatic speculation. Richard Feynman once said, “A scientist outside his area of expertise is just as dumb as the next guy.” Intellectuals just need to maintain their standards.
Western churches have a more difficult task. They need to give up blind faith and require that their religion be reasonable. They need to let go of scientific facts that are out dated and render unto Einstein that which is Einstein’s. Both Hinuism and Buddhism require that religion be reasonable. This is not a problem for them. The difficulty will be making the transition. Religion will be the stronger for the change.
Both scientific and religious images are necessary to cover human experience, as are those of the creative, the warrior, and the awakened ones. None of these are going away. They all have their own realm.
@Papa ron; Indeed, it is in the west that this kind of conflict seems to be happening all the time…Those who say “they cannot coexist” simply because it is what’s happening in their neighborhood are just a bunch of arrogant racist idiots (some claiming themselves to be intelliectuals), unwilling to learn from people from other parts of the world because they think that “west always knows best” and possess the western scientists’ “I know it all” attitude…..
Yes as long as the ultimate truth is not revealed, science and religion may coexist in various styles of arguments, fights, correlations,and sometimes harmony. It is like a tedious co-partner’s journey, who are in love and hate relationship.
But finally when truth will be revealed both will merge in a single, absolute acceptable explanation, because the ultimate “truths” cannot be in multiplicity.
That will be the day of universal enlightenment.
Yes, they already coexist. Here are some ideas each “community” needs to consider:
Sciene – if history has taught us anything it is that science is always wrong! If not wrong, certainly missing some pieces. It is those pieces that will always elude us as finite beings. We cannot possibly comprehend the infinite. The more we think we understand the more complex we find our universe to be on both the largest and smallest scales. Having said that, I don’t consider it “wrong” to pursue science as a way of understanding our universe. I think that is one of the reasons we exist.
Religion – Simply put is mankind’s attempt to explain that which he doesn’t understand. There is no “one way” that is “right”. It is one’s belief in a particular faith/religion that gives meaning to one’s life.
Science and religion could both be defined as philosophy, one based on observable, measurable methods (sience), the other on contemplative and meditative methods (religion).
No, they cannot coexist. Well, it is only through some miracle of wrestling with cognitive dissonance that they are somehow able to coexist with scientists who are also Mormons.
When it comes to truths about the natural world, religion has simply been rendered useless now by science. It simply has no more truths to suggest about the natural world, and gets quite a few things wrong. One example, of probably hundreds: in the Genesis creation story, God creates plants before he creates sunlight. This is silly to anyone as a scientist. And if anyone is eager to put God “outside of space and time,” just remember that people used to think that religion and science were inseparable: bad crop yields and dangerous storms were punishment by God. Early cosmologists used to think God compelled the planets to revolve around the Sun. We now know better. I suppose their still is a small minority, including Pat Robertson, who think that Haiti earthquake was deserved because they made “a pact with the devil,” but I think it’s safe to say that is a stupid statement.
When it comes to morality, progressive thought and philosophy have allowed for moral progress, whereas religion believes that the morality of a scared and oppressed Bronze Age society of 2,000 years ago should remain the morality for all time. The moral systems propounded in the Bible are ridiculous and antiquated. How can an honest person actually claim that God of the Bible is omnibenevolent and omnipotent, yet he condones slavery multiple times. He clearly expects people to keep slaves. See Genesis 17:12, Exodus 12:43, Exodus 21:1, Exodus 21:20 and 32, Leviticus 22:10, Leviticus 25:44, Luke 7:2, and Colossians 3:22 – “Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God”
The fact that people parade the Bible around as the source of morality is a joke, the biggest problem is that people just don’t read the Bible. If more people read the Bible, I think they would be more doubtful of their loving God. There’s a scientific hypothesis for you. Any takers on the study?
That religious misconceptions about the capabilities of an embryo has been the sole cause for halting progress and keeping many useful therapies from being used is certainly one of the great tragic absurdities of our time. In addition, we now understand how homosexuals may come to develop in a different hormonal environment in the womb that can have profound effects on their sexual development and their resulting sexuality. It is time that we stopped listening to a bunch of scientifically ignorant virgins to answer life’s greatest questions.
Perhaps you can claim that religion is still compatible with science, but the problem is that calling them compatible is misleading because it seems to suggest that both have something to offer. Religion has no real knowledge to offer about the world, just silly mythologies that well-intentioned, yet unquestioning people have seen fit to construct their lives around. Religion is at best a false promise, and at worst, it is the biggest obstruction to scientific progress that man ever created.
For those who still have questions, I thought the Discovery Channel put out an interesting discussion of the topic, “Did God Create the Universe?”
http://curiosity.discovery.com/question/did-god-create-the-universe-videos
Yes. Fundamentally they do conflict on their way of knowing the truth of reality. Reason versus faith. But within a society that respects individual rights and free speech they don’t have to conflict violently.
When the mouth stumbles, it is worse than the foot. (West African Proverb)
No. Religion is delusion. Until we put it behind us, our science will remain shackled by religion.
Open your eyes they do coexist!
Unfortunately it is common to take sides and chose conflict when unity is the answer. Both religion and science come out of the same source human consciousness.
Thank God for science! It would be a darker world if only religious beliefs and concepts existed. Thank God for Religious freedom that human imagination and inspiration even if diluted quite often did not exist.
Suffering comes out of either position needing to be exclusively right.
ROTFL!
Can science and religion co-exist?
They co-exist now. They are opposite sides of a tarnished coin… each of little value without the other.
If a smart man says to a culture whose sociology is faith based, “As you give so shall you receive.”…….. and a smart man tells a culture that is science minded, “Every action is equalled by a reaction.”…….. aren’t they describing the same natural tendency?
Quantum has erased the border between faith and science. Human consensus is lagging behind, as usual.
The experimenters mental preconceptions affect the outcome of the experiment… IOW: “Mind moves reality.”
“ONLY mind is reality.”
Equations are temporal vanities. Belief is as stagnant as an equation.
Science and religion are fighting over the bottom rung of the evolutionary ladder… which rung I never intend to use again.
they can, but not well. for the best results take science out and destroy the world with insane lunatics, or take out the lunatics and let the slightly more sane scientists do their damn job.